Elite

Big bass of Lake Okeechobee

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
It was a big bass bonanza for the season-opening SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee. Despite less-than-ideal conditions leading up to the event and a cool front during the tournament, the famed Florida fishery produced monster fish and monster bags as expected.
Florida’s Bernie Schultz made noise early on BassTrakk, landing a pair of 8-pound class largemouth. On Day 1, 99 of the 104 Elites caught limits totaling 506 fish that weighed 1,495-9, for an average of 2.95. It went up to 3.15 on Day 2 when all 103 fishing caught limits.
On Day 1, Brandon Lester brought in a 6-pound, 14-ounce bass that was almost half his weight of 15-5. Lester’s total of 20-11 on Friday helped him continue his run of consecutive two-day cuts, and like most he suffered a slow Day 3 to finish 46th.
Buddy Gross, who won last year in Florida, landed a 6-15 in a bag of 16-15. A warm and sunny second day saw Gross increase his weight to 17-6, but a cool front with clouds saw him slip like many in the field. He mustered 12-5 to finish 27th, a decent start in the nine-event season.
Rookie Joey Cifuentes showed some big-fish abilities in his first Elite tournament, landing a 7-2 en route to a solid 19th-place start. Cifuentes, of Clinton, Ark., actually climbed with 20-4 on Day 3, when 46 of 50 had limits and the average fish weight dropped to 2-12.
Well-versed in big Florida bass, Clifford Pirch found one weighing 7-4 in his Day 1 bag of 18-12. Lower weights the next two days saw Pirch drop to 45th.
This 7-7 gave Skylar Hamilton most of his Day 1 weight of 16-10, then the Tennessee pro busted 23-6 on Friday before a 9-5 Day 3 to take 22nd.
Ed Loughran was among the 11 anglers who topped 20 pounds on Day 1, helped greatly by this 7-12. His weight fell to 18-9 then 15-12, which gave him a fantastic 12th-place start to the year. 
Steve Kennedy made plenty of noise during the week, starting with the fourth-largest bag of 23-8, which included a 6-5 and 7-1.
Scott Martin, who grew up in Clewiston where his father, Roland Martin, set up his bass fishing empire in 1981, was among the favorites on Okeechobee. He didn’t disappoint with a second-place bag weighing 25-11. It was touching to see his dad help show off the impressive limit.
It was Bernie Schultz, however, who finished up with the lead. The longtime pro from Gainesville, had an 8-0 along with an 8-10 for Thursday’s best limit of 28-11. Schultz took Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day. Yet he couldn’t duplicate the feat as he fished a well-known area with a huge field of boats. He had 10-12 on Day 2 then abandoned the crowded area and fell to 34th with three for 6-6.
Patrick Walters, who had 21-5 on Thursday, landed a 6-14 as he built a 22-13 limit that put him fifth after two days. He was among the 20 pros topping 20 pounds on Day 2. However, Day 3 was much stingier as 7-14 dropped him outside the Top 10 to a 15th-place finish.
Behind this 7-5 in a 24-3 limit, Texas’ Ray Hanselman Jr. moved up from 40th to 13th before his bite cooled on Day 3 (7-0) and he dropped to 28th.
The up-and-down nature of Okeechobee hit Micah Frazier as well. The Georgian started 65th but 26-13 bumped him into Top 10 contention in 12th before only three fish thwarted his hopes and saw him drop 25 spots.
It was a roller coaster ride for Gerald Swindle, who jumped into the Top 10 after this 8-3 helped him weigh 24-9 on Day 2. Alas, G-Man was the first man out in 11th but got a great start on his goal of winning a third Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year title.
Jake Whitaker, who suffered through his second subpar season in 2022, got off to a rousing start. After a middle-of-the-pack Day 1, he busted a 27-12 limit, which helped him post an eighth-place finish.
Behind a 7-11 that bolstered his bag of 24-13, Australian Carl Jocumsen climbed from 68th to 22nd. Jocumsen then posted the second-best bag on Semifinal Saturday at 23-6 to stay in the mix. He finished sixth with 75-7.
The big mover of Day 2 was Bill Lowen, who started 80th. His 29-1 limit, the “best bag” of his career, jumped him up to 10th, but only two fish on Saturday knocked him back to 40th.
Among those expected to do well, Drew Cook started fifth with 22-12 then moved up one notch with 22-14. A rough third day of 11-7 saw him lose contact with the leaders, and he wound up 10th.
The remarkable story of the event was how Louisiana’s Tyler Rivet found his bass. During practice, he went up the Kissimmee River to catch some crappie to feed his road roommates and discovered the region held big bass. With 24-5 on Day 1, he stood third then moved up to second place as he averaged nearly 6 pounds a fish on Day 2 with 29-2. Rivet’s two-day total was 53-7, on pace for the Century Club.
After 22-9 on Day 1, Brandon Cobb had a dream flurry, intercepting several big gals as he built the VMC Monster Bag of the tournament at 32-15. Cobb’s biggest bass was an 8-12, earning Phoenix Boats Big Bass daily and event bonuses. He led with 55-8 and stayed in contention with 14-4 but fell to third with 11-13 for a total of 81-9. “On Day 2, most of my big ones were prespawn, so that made me excited. On Day 3, the weather wasn’t right, and they weren’t ready. Today, I fully expected them to be spawning,” Cobb said Sunday. “I expected it to get hot any hour, but it just never did.”
Missouri’s Cody Huff was 39th after Day 2, but he landed this 8-6 to earn Saturday’s $1,000 big fish bonus. It was more than half his 15-15 total that gave him a solid 25th-place start to the season.
Clark Wendlandt caught this 7-3 in South Bay that helped him bag 23-4 on Day 3. Wendlandt followed his Day 1 18-9 with 25-5 to move into sixth place. With 15-14 on Sunday, he totaled 83-0 for second place. “I just felt most confident in that area,” he said. “I practiced at the north end too, but I just felt like my better bites would be down south. I honestly didn’t get any big bites in practice, but I caught some big fish in the tournament.”
Rookie Logan Latuso of Gonzales, La., improved from 17-1 to 21-3 before landing a 6-pounder and several 5s in building Day 3’s biggest bag of 24-15 to get into contention in his first Elite competition.
After 23-9 on Day 2, Kennedy stood third but moved into the lead with his third bag topping 23 pounds. This 8-4 helped the Auburn, Ala., veteran to 23-1 and a total of 70-2, putting a Century Club belt within reach. However, Kennedy’s area seemed to be more populated with fishermen than big bass, and he stumbled to fifth with 7-0.
Fishing Championship Sunday in his first Elite event, Latuso made a run with 18-1, which included the daily big bass of 6-14. He finished fourth with 81-4 for a great start and the Bassmaster Rookie of the Year lead.
Rivet, in his fifth Elite season, finally got to flex on the field. The pro from Raceland, La., worked his areas in the Kissimmee River to 18-13, the best bag of the day. Rivet, whose previous best Elite finishes were sixths, won with 86-15. “Nobody else was doing what I was doing, and that’s the key to winning an Elite tournament — finding that one little thing off the wall,” Rivet said. “I thought this one would be won out in the lake … But when I found my spot in the river, I thought, ‘This could be something.’ But I didn’t know until that first day, and I was like, ‘We could win.’”

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